Meaning
Instruction to clean one's hands.
Cultural Background
In traditional homes, a 'let-khone-tharyar' (water basin) is used. The host pours water over the guest's hands. Saying 'Let Say Par' is the verbal cue for this ritual. While feet are washed before entering a pagoda, hands are washed before handling sacred offerings like flowers or gold leaf. 'Let Say Par' ensures the offering is 'thant-sin' (pure). The phrase became a national mantra during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now common to see 'Let Say Par' accompanied by 7-step handwashing diagrams in all public spaces. Children are taught to say 'Let say pee par bee' (I have finished washing my hands) to teachers before being allowed to eat their lunch.
The 'Par' Rule
When in doubt, always add 'par'. It is the magic word that prevents you from sounding like a drill sergeant.
Avoid 'Thit'
Never use 'thit' for hands. It’s a common beginner mistake that sounds very 'foreigner' to locals.
Meaning
Instruction to clean one's hands.
The 'Par' Rule
When in doubt, always add 'par'. It is the magic word that prevents you from sounding like a drill sergeant.
Avoid 'Thit'
Never use 'thit' for hands. It’s a common beginner mistake that sounds very 'foreigner' to locals.
Gestures Matter
When saying 'Let Say Par' to a guest, gesture toward the sink with an open palm, not a pointing finger.
Test Yourself
Fill in the missing word to make the sentence a polite request to wash hands.
ထမင်းမစားခင် လက်____ပါ။
'Say' (ဆေး) is the specific verb used for washing hands in Burmese.
Which sentence is the most polite way to tell a guest to wash their hands?
Choose the best option:
'Par' (ပါ) is the standard polite particle for requests.
Complete the dialogue between a mother and a child.
Mother: သားလေး၊ အပြင်ကပြန်လာရင် ဘာလုပ်ရမလဲ? Child: ဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ _________။
The child is stating an intention ('I will wash'), so 'mal' is added to 'say par'.
Match the phrase variation to the correct situation.
1. လက်ဆေးပါဦးနော် 2. လက်ဆေးတော်မူပါ 3. လက်ဆေးကြပါ
'Naw' is friendly, 'Taw mu' is for monks/royalty, 'Gya' is for plural groups.
🎉 Score: /4
Visual Learning Aids
Practice Bank
4 exercisesထမင်းမစားခင် လက်____ပါ။
'Say' (ဆေး) is the specific verb used for washing hands in Burmese.
Choose the best option:
'Par' (ပါ) is the standard polite particle for requests.
Mother: သားလေး၊ အပြင်ကပြန်လာရင် ဘာလုပ်ရမလဲ? Child: ဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ _________။
The child is stating an intention ('I will wash'), so 'mal' is added to 'say par'.
1. လက်ဆေးပါဦးနော် 2. လက်ဆေးတော်မူပါ 3. လက်ဆေးကြပါ
'Naw' is friendly, 'Taw mu' is for monks/royalty, 'Gya' is for plural groups.
🎉 Score: /4
Frequently Asked Questions
10 questionsNo, it's used for any hygiene context, including after using the bathroom or coming home from outside.
Yes, but ensure you use the most polite tone and perhaps add 'khin-byar' or 'shin' at the end.
You can still say 'Let say par'. In rural areas, washing with just water is still common.
Among very close friends, you might just say 'Let say' or 'Let say oo', but it's risky.
Yes, 'Say' (ဆေး) also means medicine or paint, depending on the context.
Say 'Letဆေးပြီးပါပြီ' (Let say pee par bee).
It can be. It's better to say 'Letဆေးလို့ရပါပြီ' (The hand-washing water is ready) to be indirect.
'Say' is for scrubbing hands/dishes; 'Hyaw' is for hair/clothes.
Usually, people say 'Let thant-sin-say thone-par' (Please use hand sanitizer).
Burmese is a verb-final language, and polite particles always follow the verb.
Related Phrases
ခြေဆေးပါ
similarPlease wash your feet
မျက်နှာသစ်ပါ
similarPlease wash your face
လက်သန့်စင်ဆေး
specialized formHand sanitizer
လက်ဆေးမင်္ဂလာ
specialized formHand-washing ceremony
ကိုယ်လက်သန့်ရှင်းရေး
builds onPersonal hygiene
